The following disclosure relates to systems for buying and selling direct materials and stockable Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) materials. “Direct materials” are raw materials and components used to manufacture products. “Stockable MRO materials” are replacement parts or spare parts for components, products, assemblies and subassemblies of capital equipment used by manufacturing companies. Some enterprises use electronic commerce (e-commerce) technology, such as e-selling and e-procurement applications, to buy and sell direct materials and stockable MRO materials. This buying and selling can occur in (a) B2B (Business to Business) scenarios where a single buying entity engages in e-commerce with a single selling entity, and (b) public or private trading exchange-based scenarios where multiple buying entities engage in e-commerce with multiple selling entities.
Both direct materials and stockable MRO materials are often modeled as internal part numbers (IPNs) (also called part identifiers, product numbers or product identifiers) in both buyers' and sellers' computer systems. An enterprise computer system's product lifecycle management (PLM) component may generate part numbers internally. Part numbers of direct and stockable MRO materials in behind-the-firewall (BTF) enterprise computer systems carry information that trigger enterprise and e-commerce system application logic, such as pricing, costing, planning, and inventory management. Internal part numbers generally have no inherent meaning outside of the firewall (OTF) of the enterprise systems landscape.
Outside the firewall (OTF) means outside an enterprise's computer security system. Inside the firewall (ITF) or Behind the Firewall (BTF) is inside an enterprise's computer security system.
A key obstacle in business-to-business (B-to-B or B2B) e-commerce in public and private sales and procurement exchanges (PTXs) is that participating purchasing and selling entities do not understand each other's product identifiers, i.e., part numbers. For example, a company that makes computers may use its own internal part number (IPN) for a part to be purchased. A supplying manufacturer may have a Manufacturers Part Number (MPN) for a form, fit, function equivalent part. A supplying distributor may have its own Vendor Part Number (VPN) for a form, fit, function equivalent part. Use of heterogeneous, independently generated product identifiers by purchasing and selling entities for materials that may be FFF (Form, Fit, Function) equivalent results in semantic disconnects between the purchasing and selling entities during automated e-commerce processes. This semantic disconnect requires intervention and participation of technical experts in buying and selling entities to determine whether parts that buyers want to buy and parts that sellers want to sell are form, fit and function equivalent. This participation and manual intervention by experts to determine FFF equivalency slows down and adds to the cost of industrial commerce that involves direct and stockable MRO materials.
FIG. 1 illustrates examples of buy side applications 100, sell side applications 102 and a plurality of procurement, private trade exchange (PTX) based applications 110. The PTX applications 110 may include a demand aggregation application 112, a request for quotation (RFQ)/Quotation application 114, and an auctioning/bidding application 116.
In the private procurement trading exchange (PTX) 110, a procuring entity 100 may deploy multiple buy-side enterprise systems 104A-104C. Alternatively, the systems 104A-104C may represent computer systems of multiple enterprises. The procuring entity's systems 104A-104C may have more than one part number for parts that are form fit function (FFF) equivalents. Similarly, for the multiple sell-side participants 106A-106C, each sell-side participant 106 may have a different part number for parts that are form, fit, and function equivalents.
Buyers 104A-104C on the buy side 100 and sellers 106A-106C on the sell side 102 may have multiple part numbers for form, fit and function (FFF) equivalent products. A part's form, fit and function (FFF) equivalent is defined by a set of specifications, which may be represented as a taxonomy instantiation. For example, a computer manufacturer 104B on the buy side 100 may identify an electronic component, e.g., a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which the manufacturer 104B wishes to buy, with a part number “4711” in the manufacturer's enterprise computer systems. A supplier 106C on the supply side 102 may internally call its DRAM product “WXYZ” in the supplier's computer systems. These internal part numbers (IPNs) may be linked to each company's internal software applications, such as financials, inventory, sales, etc.
When manufacturers 104A-104C buy components and materials from suppliers 106A-106C, it is important that the suppliers' parts (e.g., “WXYZ”) be form, fit and function (FFF) equivalents to the part (e.g., “4711”) required by a buyer 104. While there might be thousands of DRAM products available in the global electronic marketplace, none or few products may be a FFF equivalent to what the buyer 104 needs.
A computer manufacturer 104 may wish to electronically solicit potential additional sources of supply for DRAM by using an e-procurement system to send RFQs to potential new suppliers 106A-106C around the world. A problem arises when the potential sources of supply, i.e., companies 106A-106C that manufacture or distribute DRAM, do not recognize “4711” since each supplier 106 has its own part numbers for DRAM products. A supplier 106 receiving an electronic request for quotation (RFQ) 114 for part number “4711” would have no way of knowing what the part number “4711” represents, unless additional information is available. Similarly, a buyer 104 receiving a solicitation to buy “WXYZ” from a supplier 106C would have no way of knowing whether the “WXYZ” part is an FFF equivalent to “4711.”
Free form product specifications (text) that accompany a product or RFQ do not solve the problem because specifications developed by the buyer 104 may not map directly to specifications developed by a seller 106. Free form text may also require people to read and process the text.
The product semantics disconnect (different part number problem) constrains buyers 104A-104C from finding additional sources of supply in the global electronic marketplace, and constrains suppliers 106A-106C from electronically promoting their products to buyers 104A-104C. Especially in exchange environments 110, heterogeneous part numbering constrains applications like demand aggregation 112, electronic auctioning and bidding 116 and electronic RFQ/quotation exchanges 114, because these applications may require a single part number to process.
In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a large or diverse buying entity on the buy side 100 may have different part numbers in different divisions 104A-104C for FFF equivalent items due to mergers, acquisitions and legacy part numbering systems. Also, specifications for the different products may have been developed at different times by different engineers and may not be consistent.
Today, the problem of determining FFF equivalency is addressed through procedures and additional human-to-human communications between buyers 104A-104C and sellers 106A-106C. But the procedures and additional human-to-human communications limit the speed and efficiency of the buy/sell process, and fail to take advantage of the potential vast productivity gains to be realized through e-commerce on the World Wide Web (WWW).
Supply Chain FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a supply chain 200. The supply chain 200 includes manufacturers 202, franchised component distributors 204, independent component distributors 206, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) 208, value added distributors (VAD) 210, value added resellers 212, an end customer 214, component manufacturers 216, component brokers 218 and contract manufacturing services (CMS) or contract electronics manufacturer (CEM) 220. FIG. 2 also depicts the use of the Electronic Component (EC) catalog taxonomy (ECCT) and the Information Technology (IT) catalog taxonomy (ITCT) segments of a version of the RosettaNet Technical Dictionary (RNTD).
A CEM is a provider of manufacturing services to original equipment designers (OEDs). Component manufacturers may send part specifications to the OED. The OED sends documents to the CEM, including the OED's approved manufacturer parts list (AMPL) and “customer (from the CEM's perspective) bill of materials (BOM) (see FIG. 11).” The CEM's customer the OED, and from the OED's perspective, customer BOMs are OED-created BOMs using the OED's Internal Part Numbers (IPNs). Cross reference of customers' AMPLs and BOMs provide information to the CEM as to which parts (e.g., MPNs and/or VPNs) can be purchased in order to manufacture equipment for the OED, based on the OED's BOM.
The OEMs 208 and CEMs 220 may buy components from the distributors 204, 206 and component brokers 218, who buy the components from the semiconductor manufacturers 202 and electronic component manufacturers 216. In some cases, the OEM 208 may buy components directly from the electronic component manufacturers 216. CPTI may enable OEMs 208, OEDs and CEMs 220 to more easily buy directly from component manufacturers 216, rather than purchasing via distributors 206.
In some cases, distributors 206 provide the added value of helping buyers identify sources of supply or sellers identify customers for FFF specific components. Distributors 206 may create knowledge of which part numbers may be FFF equivalents.
The semantics disconnect problem may compound at each level of the global industry supply chain 200. For example, a manufacturer's part number (MPN) of a component manufacturer 202 (e.g., semiconductor manufacturer) is often given different vendor part numbers (VPNs) by distributors 204, 206 and component brokers 218. A manufacturer's part number (MPN) is a product ID given by a manufacturer to a component made by the manufacturer. The MPN is assigned by the component's original manufacturer, e.g., manufacturer 202. A variation of this is where an MPN's manufacturer is not the original manufacturer, but manufacturers a FFF equivalent to the original MPN, and assigns an MPN that is a recognizable variant of the original manufacturer's MPN.
A vendors' part number (VPN) is a product ID of a component assigned by a vendor. Technically, the vendor could be the manufacturer, and therefore the VPN could be the MPN. Typically, the term “vendor” applies to distributors, who may assign their own part numbers because the distributor/vendor may resell components from multiple manufacturers that are FFF equivalent and may sell these under one VPN identifier.
From a buying organization's perspective, an internal part number (IPN) may be a product identifier for a procured, stockable (inventoried) material or component. For example, in the SAP R/3 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, an IPN may represent a “material master” object, which is a master record or representation of a product. The material master may have a raw or purchased material type. The material master identifier may be the same as a part ID or a product identifier. If an item is stockable, like direct materials or stockable MRO, then the item may be identified in the system as a material master before any transactions for the material item can be performed by the system. The system needs information from the material master to trigger application logic. A material master may be separated into different “views,” such as a basic data view (e.g., with description and unit of measure), a sales view (e.g., with sales prices and sales unit of measure), a planning view (e.g., with reorder point and MRP parameters), a costing view (cost), etc.
A “material master” in SAP's R/3 system may be known by another term in other enterprise or e-selling or e-procurement systems. For example, in SAP's e-procurement system Enterprise Buyer Professional (EBP), part numbers created in the system are called “product masters.” In stockable maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) environments, the IPN is the identifier (ID) under which procured equipment spare part components are stocked. In direct material environments, the IPN is used to manage stocked materials and is also the ID for procured components in a bill of materials (BOM).
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) 208 are original designers and manufacturers of equipment, which can be assembled from procured mechanical, electrical and passive components. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) 208 have internal part numbers (IPNs) for components in their bills of materials (BOMs). Each of these IPNs may be linked to an approved manufacturers list (AML) (known in SAP R/3 as an Approved Manufacturers Part List (AMPL), and in some other systems, an AVL (Approved Vendors List)) (see AMPL 1124 in FIG. 11). The AMPL 1124 contains multiple FFF equivalent MPNs, VPNs and/or EPNs 1126A-1126C that have been pre-approved for purchase, typically by a procurement engineer, when a net requirement exists for the IPN to which the AMPL has been linked. By definition, each MPN, VPN, or EPN in the AMPL is interchangeable or an FFF equivalent to the IPN, i.e., share a set of common specifications or attributes. All approved part numbers in the AMPL should function properly when used in the product manufactured under a BOM, or when used as a replacement part in the product.
A contract manufacturer (CM) 220 in FIG. 2 may need to maintain BOMs of IPNs with associated AMPLs for multiple OEM customers in the CM's system. The OEM customers can easily have different IPNs for items that are FFF equivalent. These IPNs from different OEMs 208 will have different AMPLs, which may often have a high degree, but not total, overlap. For example, an AMPL for one OEM's IPN may contain some MPNs or VPNs which are also included in AMPLs for other OEMs IPNs.
In manufacturing industries, net materials requirements planning (MRP) is performed on the IPNs in BOMs. A purchase order (PO) is generated for the IPN and the PO also contains one of the FFF-equivalent approved parts in the AMPL 1124. This allows the selling company to know which part number (e.g., the approved part number) is selected from the AMPL. A selected MPN 1126B is received into the buyer's inventory as a specific part number IPN3 1112, i.e., the identity of the MPN 1126B may be lost with the receipt-to-stock transaction. A purchasing company will often buy different approved parts from the AMPL 1124 with different POs. Thus, multiple, different approved parts 1126A-1126C may be carried physically in inventory under the IPN3. All of the approved parts 1126A-1126C in the AMPL 1124 should be FFF equivalents to the IPN3 1112. Otherwise, the approved parts 1126A-1126C may not function within the product (e.g., a computer) manufactured from components in the product's BOM structure 1100.
The term “approved” in AMPL indicates that each part listed in the AMPL has been tested and “approved” as being a FFF equivalent to the specifications or attributes of the IPN. Two MPNs with similar specifications are not necessarily FFF equivalent, since the specifications may not be precise enough to ensure that the parts are FFF equivalent. Thus, there is a need for an “approved” manufacturer's parts list (AMPL). Parts are usually designated as approved after testing to make sure they function properly in the equipment within which they are used.
GTIN
One proposed standard part numbering solution is the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). A GTIN represents a specific manufactured product. The GTIN is a 14-character, non-intelligent, numeric identifier that includes a packaging code, a company code, a sequential identifier and a “check digit.” It is identical to the EAN/UCC-14. There is a one-to-one correspondence between a GTIN and a specific manufactured product. A GTIN may be assigned sequentially by a manufacturer or a consortium. GTINs were designed for buyers and sellers to use the same part number throughout the supply chain, rather than each using their own, self-assigned part numbers. Thus, GTINs would streamline product information flow.
GTINs are limited because there is no semantic relationship between a part's GTIN and the part's FFF. If a buyer submitted an RFQ with a particular GTIN, the seller would not be able to easily or quickly derive the part's FFF to determine whether the seller had a product to offer. So while buyers can use seller's GTINs after they become known to a seller, a buyer RFQing a new supplier does not yet know the new seller's GTIN for the part that the buyer wants, or indeed whether the new seller has such a product. Nor can the new seller determine from the buyer's internal part number what the buyer wants to buy.
RosettaNet (see www.rosettanet.org) is a consortium of 400+ companies in the high tech and electronics industry. RosettaNet states that where a one-to-many relationship exists between a buyer's IPN and possible FFF equivalent part numbers from suppliers, the Approved Manufacturers List (AML) or Approved Manufacturers Part List (AMPL) may be used. The buyer can continue to use the same IPN, rather than using a supplier's GTIN as the buyers IPN. This is desirable for manufacturers because if the buying manufacturing company created IPNs using the sellers' GTINs, the buying manufacturing company may have multiple FFF equivalent IPNs. This may result in the buyer's MRP system generating a net requirements for a given IPN even though there might be available inventory of another FFF equivalent IPN. Thus, manufacturers may desire to use the AMPL rather than GTINs.
RosettaNet allows for use of GTINs for distributors and use of AMPLs for manufacturers. RosettaNet has defined a Partner Interface Process (PIP) for the AML, aka AMPL (Approved Manufacturers Parts List). The IPN with AML is more conventionally used in enterprise systems by electronics manufacturing companies than GTINs.